Girls' Night Out
by thinktink2
Summary: Sometimes you need a night out with the girls. Part of the "Coming to Terms" sphere; Takes place after "Reaping."


AN: Don't ask. Occasionally I just write stuff to entertain myself. This idea took hold one day and would not let up until it was written. Spent an entire day off getting it down before scrapping the last five thousand words (they just weren't working) the next day and re writing the last third of it. I think it came out okay, but you can let me know if you liked it too. There's a companion piece, Boys' Night In, if you want to read it, too.

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"Wow, people actually get dressed up for these things?" Trubel said, looking around. She was dressed in what Adalind typically deemed as her usual fare; skinny grey jeans, a t-shirt, leather jacket, and a grungy type of boot that looked like something from a military surplus supply store. Rosalee was wearing jeans also and a soft earthy toned sweater, hair done up in loose waves, Adalind was wearing black leggings and a white tunic shirt and black wedge booties, hair straight and loose over her shoulders, and Eve…

Well, Eve looked like all she was missing was a leather riding crop to whip someone with, done up in tight leather pants and a black silk shirt. She was wearing a black bob wig, and Adalind glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, still grappling with the fact she was here, of all places, with them.

It was Trubel's birthday, and Rosalee had suggested this whole idea to Adalind who had agreed they should do something special and then it was too late to back track when Rosalee had laid out her plans and Trubel had actually sounded excited about it.

She wasn't sure if Trubel was having second thoughts and that's why she had brought along Eve, or if she had genuinely wanted a night with the girls—all her friends beside her—and Adalind had to reluctantly admit that despite how cold and distant Eve sometime seemed, she and Trubel did appear to share some sort of connection. Whether it was something that lingered from her time when she was known as Juliette, or something that had been forged with the new identity, she wasn't sure, but Eve had nevertheless joined them for the evening, and since it was Trubel Adalind had kept her mouth shut and tried to be as pleasant and easy going as possible.

It was actually working better to just ignore her altogether.

Pleasant was a bit of a stretch when Adalind was the woman who had inadvertently (maybe, not so much) been responsible for Juliette metamorphosing into Eve. Not to mention also responsible for providing the metaphorical ball of meteor fire that had hit Juliette's and Nick's relationship and blown it apart and set it aflame. And the person who then shacked up with Juliette/Eve's former love when she had gotten pregnant and had his son as a result and also the person three some years later that was happily married to him.

Still. Three years, water under the bridge right?

She hoped.

Anyway, she glanced around at the people Trubel was indicating and raised her eyebrow at the sight. Honestly, she'd seen hookers on the street wear clothes that were more tasteful. Certainly covered more.

"What do they think? They're going to get lucky with one of the dancers?"

"There's always hope," Adalind said.

"Does that happen?"

"There's always the after party," Rosalee said grinning and everyone watched as a busty girl wearing an embroidered corseted top and miniskirt, hair and makeup heavy and flawless, walked by in five inch heels.

"I'm sorry I didn't wear my boobs out," Trubel remarked to them blandly and Adalind thought she caught a hint of an amused smile on Eve's face as they watched the girl go by.

"There might be still time for you to change," Adalind said lightly and Rosalee smirked. "It is your birthday after all."

"No thanks," Trubel said. "Besides, you didn't wear your boobs out," she added to Adalind and Rosalee.

"Married," Rosalee said with sigh, and Adalind nodded, mock-disappointed. She would have loved explaining that particular look to Nick as she was leaving. He had agreed to watch the kids that night when Adalind had told him she and Rosalee were going to take Trubel out for her birthday. Some drinks, food, and good company and she had wisely not specified what venue the drinks were located at, and that the company included male strippers and a whole mass of people beyond herself and Rosalee and the birthday girl, not that she thought Nick would overly care. She just didn't want to hear his pithy comments on it. And wearing an outfit even remotely revealing like the one she just witnessed would have excited Nick's curiosity, not to mention a few other things. She could tell he was pleased she and Rosalee were doing something special for Trubel. Adalind recalled though she had spent most of her life as a loner, Trubel very much enjoyed being part of the group and their close circle of friends, and having the semblance of a family, and Nick considered her part of his family.

She had no idea what Rosalee had told Monroe to get out of the house, but he was watching their infant daughter while Rosalee played hooky for the night.

Adalind and everyone else watched another heavily made up girl saunter past. This one was dressed more tastefully than the last, wearing a killer dress and heels that Adalind would die for, laced up stilettos and Adalind stared at them, thinking of a dress she'd seen downtown in one of the shop windows that she could wear it with.

Nick would probably appreciate the whole look, too, and now that his heart was finally healed, they could both enjoy quite enthusiastically the benefits of such an ensemble.

Hmm…she wondered how much they cost.

"Love your shoes," Adalind said impulsively, and the girl turned, chocolaty brown eyes, and smiled.

"Thanks," she said.

"Manolos?" Adalind asked her, and she nodded.

"The best," she said and continued past them.

Yeah, they were. They were probably no less than a thousand bucks, too, looking at them. Maybe seven or eight hundred, if she was lucky. Either way, way too much money for Adalind to spend, what with two kids, a car, private school and daycare, and a mortgage. Still, there was nothing like a designer pair of shoes to make you feel sexy. Maybe she could skip the dress, and just buy the shoes.

Nick would probably appreciate them better without the dress anyway. Definitely without any clothes at all, and that would probably be the only way she could keep him from wondering about the cost. Until the credit card bill came and he had a stroke.

"Oh, finally the line's moving," Rosalee said. "Looks like they're letting everyone in. Got your tickets?" she asked, and everyone nodded and produced their tickets for effect.

"Yay, I'm so excited," Rosalee said smiling, and her enthusiasm was infectious. It wasn't overstating the fact to say Rosalee might be the most excited about what they were doing of all of them. It had been her suggestion, after all, that they go see _The Northern Lights,_ a group of male strippers based out of Vancouver who were on tour in Portland.

Adalind had never heard of them, neither had Trubel, but Rosalee had seen them perform in Seattle years ago, obviously long before Monroe and her life now in Portland, and she had sworn up and down they were worth every dollar lost down their banana hammocks.

Adalind suspected she was tired of being cooped up in the house, caring for a baby, and that she wasn't getting anything at home, having fallen into the well-meaning but unenviable pit of sexlessness that was new motherhood.

"Does Monroe know you were going to this?" Adalind asked her, and Trubel and Eve listened attentively for the answer as they shuffled forward.

"God no," Rosalee said, looking at her as though she were crazy. "I told him we might go see a show before we eat, I just didn't say what show. I'll tell him when I get back," she said, and Adalind nodded. "Did you tell Nick?"

"Hell no," Adalind said, everyone's eyes on hers, including Eve's sharp ones. "There's no way I was explaining that to him. I can just imagine the comments he'd make. I told him I would be spending the night out drinking and eating and enjoying good company," she said and Rosalee snorted.

"You're going to enjoy it, all right," she said. "Did everyone stop by an ATM?" Adalind shook her head and Trubel reached into the inside pocket of her leather coat.

She pulled out some cash. "I brought a couple hundred, you think that will be enough?"

"I'm buying the first round of drinks, and Rosalee and I are treating you for dinner tonight," Adalind said.

"I've got the second round," Rosalee declared, flashing a huge wad of money, mostly singles and small bills, but several twenties, too, Adalind saw and Trubel snorted loudly.

"Did you _rob_ an ATM?" she asked Rosalee.

"I came prepared to have a good time," Rosalee sniffed haughtily and Trubel smiled. Rosalee glanced at Eve behind Trubel and Adalind looked at her as well.

"How 'bout you, Eve? Are you ready to have a good time?" Rosalee asked her and Adalind privately wondered whether it was possible for Eve to have a good time without choking someone to death or squishing their brains in telekinetically, not that, years ago, maybe Adalind wouldn't have considered something like that semi-enjoyable.

"I'm ready," Eve intoned evenly and Adalind turned her head back to Rosalee, who glanced at her and minutely shrugged.

"Then it sounds like we're going to have some fun," and Rosalee grinned excitedly again and waggled her eyebrows suggestively. Adalind smiled a bit more hesitantly back but followed her into the venue.

It was a hotel ballroom, converted for the show with a platform stage at the center and rows and rows of chairs in the space. There were three wide aisles, sectioning the chairs into four segments, one right down the middle and two off to either side, sectioning the halves into quarters. Along the back wall of the room were two more long lines. One was to the bar, a makeshift set up composed of two skirted banquet tables and a line of liquor bottles on a counter behind it. Three cash registers sat on the two tables. The other line was to a portable ATM machine that had obviously been brought in for the event.

"Holy cow," Trubel said, looking at the spectacle.

Holy cow was right.

"Where do we sit?" Adalind asked.

"I guess anywhere were we can find four seats together with a good view of the stage," Rosalee said, looking around. "Maybe over there?" she said, standing up on her tip toes and pointing to an area off to the side of the stage. Adalind couldn't see where exactly she was indicating, only a couple of inches taller than her natural height in the wedged booties, but she nodded anyway. Trubel, taller than all of them, pointed to another area.

"How about over there?" she asked and Rosalee leaned a hand against Adalind's shoulder as she looked to where Trubel was pointing.

"Oooh, that looks good," she agreed and Adalind nodded again.

"We should probably go claim it," she said, looking at all the other girls around them. "While everyone's still in line."

"We should get some drinks, too," Rosalee said.

"How about Eve and I go hold our seats, and you guys get the drinks," Trubel said, and Rosalee nodded in agreement.

"Sounds good. What do you all want to drink?" she asked.

"Anything's fine," Trubel said. "A beer's good."

"Fuzzy navel," Eve said and Adalind and Rosalee did a double take.

"Oh-kay," Rosalee agreed.

"Correction. Almost any thing's fine," Trubel said, shaking her head and Eve smiled faintly at her.

"Four fuzzy navels, how about that?" Rosalee said and looked at Adalind for confirmation.

"Sure," she agreed.

"Wait a minute? Who's designated driver?" Trubel asked them.

"Not you, you're the birthday girl," Rosalee said. "And don't worry. I've got Josh on retainer."

"Josh?" Eve interjected.

"He's in town," Trubel explained blithely. Painted a picture, really with those words.

"Don't worry he's been sworn to secrecy," Rosalee said.

"You told him we were going to a strip show?" Adalind asked her.

"Of course not. I said we might get a little wild and crazy and would he mind picking us up if we needed it. I didn't say where we'd get wild and crazy."

Adalind hadn't spent very much time with Josh—she could pick his face out of a lineup, she was certain- but she knew him enough that she could imagine his bewildered look as he reluctantly agreed.

"Okay," Adalind said agreeably and Trubel and Eve headed to claim their chairs.

"Do you think Trubel kind of likes Josh," Rosalee said a few minutes later as they were inching through the line.

"Trubel? And Josh?" Adalind said in surprise. "I don't know. I don't really know Josh all that well," Adalind said.

"It's just, every time I see them, they're always together. They have a cute kind of chemistry," Rosalee said.

"Hmm, I don't know. He does seem to be hanging off her every word," Adalind said, "but I'm not sure if that's not more because she's a Grimm and knows what she's doing and he's still trying to grasp everything in this world and looks up to her. You think she's interested in him romantically?"

"I think she likes him," Rosalee said, shrugging. "What constitutes romantic for Trubel, do you think?"

"What's not to like?" Adalind asked flippantly. "He _is_ kind of cute."

"And sweet and funny," Rosalee added.

"I suppose."

"Hmm. I'll ask her," Rosalee decided. "Maybe after we get her good and drunk of course. A little truth serum courtesy of alcohol."

"Of course, though I'm not sure how much that will work on her," Adalind agreed, laughing a little. She looked at her friend as Rosalee looked around the room, eyeing the stage with anticipation. "I'm not sure who's going to enjoy this more, you or her. No I take that back. I am sure. You."

"You have no idea," Rosalee said, taking another few steps forward when the line moved. "I feel like a feeding, burping, diaper changing, baby tending machine. I'm not even sure when Monroe looks at me he can see me without greasy, unkempt hair and a baby hanging off my boob."

"Been a while?" Adalind asked.

"Six months."

Ever since the baby was born, Adalind deduced.

"I mean, we're both exhausted, and, too, I think he's worried, you know, with everything that happened with the birth about rushing things; it was so difficult, but I'm all healed up, and oh, my god, I am just _ready_ to rip his clothes off, or have them ripped off me. I'm so ready for some action," she said, rather loudly, too, as several other women chuckled.

"Girl, you've come to the right place," someone said, and more chuckles ensued. Rosalee grinned, a tinge of embarrassment on her face.

"Sorry, that was a little loud," she said in a quieter voice to Adalind. "Did you feel that way with—never mind," she said, realizing that Nick and Adalind hadn't been romantically involved, and therefore missing each other's company when Kelly was born. They had been trying to get used to _being_ in each other's company.

"A little bit. I mean it was nice when the relationship went that way to feel like a beautiful, attractive, desirable woman rather than the person with unwashed hair covered in baby puke taking care of his son all day," Adalind said.

"Exactly," Rosalee said. "I know Monroe means well, and maybe he's just worried, but he keeps kind of putting me off and now I'm starting to second guess my own sex appeal."

"You just need to go home and have your way with him. Take control and don't take no for answer," Adalind said. "I doubt he really wants to say no, anyway. He's probably, like you say, just being extra careful."

"That's what I'm hoping to do after tonight. Some liquid courage, some hormones raging. He won't be able to resist me, right?"

Adalind grinned. "He'd be an idiot."

"He can be an idiot."

"Aren't they all at some point in time?" Adalind remarked philosophically and Rosalee snickered.

"A Fuzzy navel for you," Rosalee said to Trubel twenty minutes later when they had gotten through the line, "and another fuzzy navel for you," she added, producing a second drink. "We thought it wise to stock up," Rosalee offered for explanation. Adalind nodded and silently handed Eve her two drinks. Eve eyed her a moment, expression blank.

"Thanks," she said and Adalind nodded and took a drink and sat down on the other side of Rosalee, who was seated next to Trubel, who was seated next to Eve.

"No problem," Adalind said. She looked around. The place was packed, women of various ages, ethnicities and backgrounds all waiting anxiously for the program to start.

"What are the chairs for?" Trubel said loudly, though it was necessary to be heard over the buzzy chatter around them. Adalind leaned forward around Rosalee and frowned. Trubel pointed to the stage. There were eight chairs set up towards the back of it.

"That's for those lucky girls plucked from the audience," Rosalee said with a wicked grin.

"Wait, they choose people from the audience," Trubel asked her, pausing her next sip from the drink, which was already half gone, Adalind noticed. She looked down the line at Eve, who was sipping hers, about a third of the way through, and back at Rosalee's which was also about a half of the way consumed. Adalind glanced back down at her own cup and saw that she was lagging behind.

She was a bit of a lightweight when it came to drinking (despite what Nick might allege), and tended to get very flirty and uninhibited when she'd had a few too many, to Nick's endless enjoyment and amusement. She was also very seriously contemplating getting pregnant again with Nick, something they had been discussing more frequently now that he was healthy again. Drinking heavily probably wouldn't be wise in any case.

She'd just pace herself, she reasoned, taking a slow sip, and glanced dubiously at the stage and the eight empty chairs.

Eve turned, a smile a little more evident on her normally blank expression as she looked at Trubel's concerned face as Rosalee explained.

"Yeah, if you've paid extra. There's a package you purchase for that," Rosalee explained and Adalind breathed a sigh of relief beside her.

"Thank god," Trubel said. "I'm not sure I'm ready to take the stage yet in my male stripper birthday extravaganza debut."

"That's too bad, I don't think they'll give me my money back," Eve said looking at them, and they all stared at her.

"What?!"

"She's kidding," Rosalee said hesitantly with a grin and Trubel shook her head. "You can ease into it when they come into the audience."

"They come into the audience?" Trubel parroted, alarmed. "I thought we just watched them on the stage and threw bills at them."

"Nope, you'll get to be up close and personal."

Adalind met Trubel's eyes, a hint of excitement in those dark brown ones, and took a larger sip of her drink.

"I guess I better get my money out so I can be ready."

"Great," Adalind said, around her straw.

She might have to forego pacing herself. It was becoming obvious she may not survive this experience without a lot of alcohol. When she came home sloshed and three sheets to the wind, well, it wasn't like Nick wouldn't probably appreciate it, if she didn't pass out first.

"What are you smiling about?" Rosalee asked, bumping her shoulder. Adalind shook her head.

"Nothing," Adalind said.

"Nick," Trubel returned. "That's a Nick smile," she said, finishing off her drink.

"Oh really?" Rosalee said with interest, and Adalind gave Trubel a look.

"How do you know?" she demanded.

"Because I've seen that moony look on your face a hundred times before."

Adalind scoffed.

"Come on, share," Rosalee coaxed and Adalind shook her head again.

"Share," she demanded.

"Share," Trubel demanded conspiratorially.

"I was just thinking I think I'm going to need a lot of alcohol tonight," she said.

"That's the spirit," Rosalee said.

"What's that have to do with Nick?" Eve asked and Adalind froze and shifted uncomfortably. "He doesn't like it when you drink?"

Well, she asked. Adalind shook her head before she answered.

"Are you kidding? He uses it as the excuse to do all the stuff he wouldn't normally do if I was sober." And Rosalee laughed out loud, perhaps at Trubel's scandalized expression. Trubel hurriedly reached for her second drink.

"And you don't like that," Rosalee asked her with a wide grin.

"Are you kidding. _I_ use it as the excuse to get him to do all the stuff he wouldn't normally do if I was sober," and Rosalee bent over as Adalind grinned at her friend and Trubel, and tried to ignore Eve's head turned her way. She shrugged.

"Anyway, I was just thinking about tonight and when I got home." She took another placid sip of her drink.

"Maybe we should text Josh now and tell him his services will be required," Rosalee said.

"Probably," Adalind agreed. "At least while we're sober the text will be decipherable."

"True," Rosalee agreed and pulled out her phone. "Here, you text him," Rosalee said, dumping her phone in Trubel's surprised lap. _Subtle, Rosalee_ Adalind thought.

"Me?"

"Yes, I'm going to get us some more drinks," she rattled her now empty glass for emphasis.

"You still have another one," Adalind pointed out.

Rosalee picked it up and tossed it back like it was a tequila shot.

"Now I don't. And I've pumped enough milk for the next two days feeding at least, so I should be good."

"I'll go with you," Eve said and Adalind shook her head at her friend.

"Hey, get me a beer," Trubel called.

"It's fuzzy navel or nothing," Rosalee called back.

"I'll have a blueberry martini," Adalind shouted, giving up on being good.

"Oooh, yes, martinis!" Rosalee agreed. "Oh, or a bloody Mary!"

"Bloody Mary's good," Trubel agreed but Adalind doubted Rosalee heard her as far away as she was. Trubel squinted at the phone and then hesitantly started typing out a note to Josh. Adalind watched her carefully, trying to discern if Rosalee was right, or if she was so desperate for any kind of affection from Monroe she was seeing things where she wanted to see them.

"What?" Trubel said, glancing up at her.

"Nothing," Adalind said, chewing on her straw, but she sneaked a glance at Trubel as she looked around the room again and sipped her drink.

Trubel held a perfunctory conversation with Josh before clicking the screen off and handing it back to Adalind. Adalind set it on Rosalee's chair and watched as Trubel bent down to pick up her second fuzzy navel from the floor.

"Are you glad Josh is back in town?" she asked Trubel casually. Trubel shrugged.

"Not sure what to do with him," she said, and Adalind nodded. Personally, if there was a guy she was interested in there were about a hundred things she could think of doing with them, not the least of which involved getting him alone and spending some time with him. Then again, she had never been really scared about being forward, not once she grasped hold of her confidence and sexuality, something that came fairly easy with being a Hexenbiest.

"You guys could go to a movie," she suggested and Trubel gave her a disbelieving look. _Or not,_ Adalind thought.

"I was thinking about having him help me translate one of the texts in the Grimm books his dad gave Nick. Nick and I are trying to translate some of them." _Or you could do that_ , which sounded about as sexless and unromantic as Adalind could imagine. She had a moment where she imagined such a scenario between her and Nick, but she always found his pensive, studious face sexy as hell, and Nick seemed to find her nerdier side attractive, too, and really, it wasn't like they were ever lacking in the ability to find an excuse for sex.

It was looking more and more like Rosalee was so desperate for romance in her own life, she was just seeing things where she wanted to see them.

"Oh, I didn't realize he knew a foreign language."

"He's got some passable French," Trubel said. "I don't know any, so whatever he does know helps."

"I'm fluent in French and German," Adalind offered, "if you get stuck."

"Thanks," Trubel said. Nick had sought out Adalind's assistance numerous times, but the Grimm stuff she mostly left to him and Trubel.

"Nick says you guys are thinking about adding to your family," Trubel said after another swallow of her drink, eyes meeting Adalind's fleetingly in soft concern before looking around the room.

"We've always wanted another baby," Adalind said. Trubel nodded.

"He seems kind of anxious."

Adalind shook her head.

"He seems to think once he hits midnight on his fortieth birthday he'll cease to have any ability to procreate."

Trubel snickered and said more seriously, "He likes being a dad, I think. He's really good at it, it seems, I mean, if I was a kid I wish I would have a dad like him."

"He's a good father, and a good husband," Adalind agreed, glad that circumstances, however painful and convoluted, had allowed them to come together as a family and a couple.

"I hope...I hope you guys are able to have the family you want," Trubel offered, and Adalind glanced at her and smiled softly, remembering she had been there with Adalind when Adalind had lost hers and Nick's baby.

"Me too."

The PA system hissed, and then music started to play loudly over the speakers. The lights in the room started to dim and the women all stood and cheered. Several began clapping along to the dance beat, and some started moving in time to the music. The stage remained empty, although it was lit up in the spotlighting and as Adalind's eyes adjusted to the darkness she could make out Rosalee and Eve picking their way back to their seats.

"Here you go, bloody Mary, just what the apothecary ordered," Rosalee said, and Eve handed Trubel two more drinks and Adalind set hers beside her still yet-to-be-started second.

"Oh, uh-uh, come on, no," Rosalee said when she saw the collection Adalind was amassing.

"What?" Adalind said.

"Come on, you've got to hurry up and finish it."

If Adalind slogged it down like Rosalee had she would be sprawled across the floor a few moments later. Nick wasn't here to offer a steadying arm (or hold her up), and Adalind shook her head.

"Come on," Rosalee said again. "You've got to catch up."

"Come on Adalind," Trubel encouraged. She held up her now finished second drink for demonstration and Adalind looked down at Eve who also had most of three drinks left.

"Eve's still got three."

Rosalee whipped her head to Eve accusingly. Eve, if she did things like roll her eyes, would have, Adalind guessed. Instead, she held up the second fuzzy navel and downed it in two swallows, and stared back defiantly at Adalind.

Well, shit.

"You're going to be picking me up off the floor in five minutes," Adalind told them.

"What are friends for?" Rosalee said, and Adalind shook her head but obediently picked up her drink and began to chug it down inelegantly, finishing it off after about thirty seconds.

Cheers erupted around them as the emcee took the stage and introduced the performers.

Ten minutes later, she felt around for her seat, needing to sit a minute, and Rosalee looked at her and grinned and Adalind smiled back fuzzily as the troupe hit the stage and began their first ensemble number.

Rosalee whooped and screamed and Trubel laughed and did the same and Eve actually smiled, though it was more at their companions' behavior then the men.

Adalind turned her attention to the stage and licked her lips, the alcohol still sweet. Damn, okay, they were fine. Chiseled and hard and well-muscled and firm, and wow… reminded her a little bit of Sean actually, and his figure had been a well-appreciated aspect in their physical relationship.

Not that Nick's wasn't defined and masculine. She was actually quite a fan of his fuzzy chest and firm abdomen and the place where his abdomen tapered, all masculine near his hips, and that whole area below. His face, and his expressive eyes...

And wow, holy shit, so much for foreplay and leading up to it, she thought, watching the strippers as they ripped off their pants and danced around in a G-string with asses so firm you could sink your teeth into them. Her mouth actually watered. She hurriedly took a sip of her bloody Mary to wet it.

She caught Rosalee's eye again and grinned, getting into the evening, helped along by the booze and the crowd and the atmosphere. She forgot about Eve, even, as she whooped and hollered and cheered and the quartet outwardly enjoyed the opening routines to varying degrees.

She tensed a little, when, after the first few dance numbers, for the next one the dancers dispersed into the crowd, and ladies all around her shot their arms out in encouragement, singles and fives, and tens, and even a twenty—

"Rosalee!"

"What? It's Trubel's birthday," Rosalee said. "She deserves a treat," and Trubel darted eyes nervously to Rosalee and the Jackson she was waving in the air impatiently.

"I don't think I've drank enough to enjoy that," Trubel said.

"Well drink some more," Rosalee encouraged cheerfully.

"Here, you can have one of mine," Adalind offered, hoping to dispense of the remaining bloody Mary, and regain a grip on sobriety, or at the very least, remain vertical for the event.

"Oh, my god, we need more drinks," Rosalee exclaimed, looking at their waning assortment.

"No, we don't," Adalind said, her last effort at being the voice of reason.

"Sure we do!" Trubel hollered, obviously starting to feel maybe a little of the effects of all the booze she had consumed, and Adalind wondered if Grimms had an inherent ability to metabolize any sort drug or mind altering substance and if so, how alcohol fell into that category. She'd never seen Nick drunk, or even remotely affected by any drink he'd consumed, but then he rarely drank to the excess she did and was always conscious of his role as an officer of the law and, more importantly, of being her ride home. There had been a couple of times when maybe he had been a little pleasantly buzzed, but that could have just been the fact he was making out with her at the time, sex on the horizon, and she gave up the study, when one of the dancers made his way over to them.

Yes, she was going to need more drinks, she thought, feeling her face flush as Rosalee rolled her hips and danced with him and yanked his…underwear…Adalind guessed it qualified as, way out, to nearly the breaking point of the elastic, and they all got a good glimpse of the goods as she stuffed the twenty inside while he rolled his hips.

"Wow!" Adalind uttered. Bigger than Sean, who had the inches. Bigger than Nick who had some girth but not the porno length, and…just… "Wow." Bigger than she'd seen in a while.

"Holy cow!" Rosalee exclaimed and Trubel laughed, cheeks red. Even Eve ghosted a smile, eyes bright.

"We need more drinks," Adalind said definitively, because if she was going to be seeing that up close, well, drinking was the order of the day. She grabbed her wristlet wallet and held it up. "Be right back."

"I'll go with you. I believe it's my turn to buy the next round," Eve said, and before she knew it she was alone with Eve, standing in line at the drink counter. All heads, including theirs, were turned to the stage as the men worked their way back, dancing and well, wow, Nick should really try that move with his hips, and then snorted a laugh as she thought of him even thinking of trying one of those moves.

God, she probably needed to lay off the booze if she was thinking of his second career moonlighting as a stripper.

He probably had his old uniform somewhere in storage, and she wondered what he would say if she told him this idea.

Probably agree she was drunk off her ass and that she needed to lay off the booze.

She grinned and pulled out her phone when she felt it buzz.

She had a message from Rosalee, and she read it out loud to Eve immediately, not thinking about the awkwardness that usually existed between them.

"Rosalee says we should get Bahama Mama's or margaritas next" she read and Eve looked at her and nodded.

She noticed a message from Nick and clicked on it to see what it was.

 _I've fought Siegbarstes and Mauvais Dentes, and Manticores and Hexenbiests who were easier to subdue than these two hellions are getting them ready and into bed._

 _Suck it up, Buttercup,_ she texted back.

 _Are you drunk?_ Came the reply a minute later and she squinted at the text. She realized the one she sent earlier read _Sack iy jip,,,,Vuttttferrcapp._

 _No_ she tried to reply but added a few extra letters without meaning to. _No_ , she managed again, without any extra characters.

 _Uh-huh. I_ _take it the birthday girl is having a good time as well._

Adalind glanced towards where Rosalee and Trubel were still seated.

 _Yeah, I think she's enjoying the attention._

 _None of you girls drove, did you?_

 _Got itttt covered,_ she managed to type out, and decided it might be wiser to put up the phone than continue the conversation.

 _Wake me when you come to bed,_ he texted back and Adalind smiled, knowing what he was implying. She doubted he would go sleep before knowing she got home safely anyway.

"Nick?" Eve asked before Adalind put the phone away and she nodded.

"Putting the kids to bed," she said to fill the silence, and thankfully the emcee came out on the stage to rouse the crowd again. They turned their attention back to him as they inched along in the line.

"You ever been to one of these?" Adalind asked suddenly.

"Twice. As Juliette," Eve said after a moment. "Both for bachelorette parties," Eve added, almost conversationally.

"I've never been," Adalind offered, not knowing why, but it was the closest thing they'd both done to try and make pleasant conversation. Given that almost any conversation between them was rife with potential landmines, it seemed significant that they both tried to maintain the civility.

Eve glanced at her, and Adalind wondered if she was surprised at the admission. Okay, yes, she was hardly what one might call a nun in her past, but despite what everyone seemed to think she wasn't some sex starved nymphomaniac, either. Sex had been largely transactional in most of her past "relationships". Trading physical affection for something else she desired or needed. Sean had been the first man she had gotten serious over, truly loved, and she had been devastated to find out how one-sided the feeling was. Nick was only the second, and even her present relationship with him now had been borne of another seemingly meaningless transaction.

"Was that when you were with Nick?" Adalind asked and then immediately regretted it. _What_ was she doing standing in line to buy _more_ alcohol?

"Yes."

Okay.

"Was it for Rosalee's wedding?" Rosalee hadn't mentioned a bachelorette party, though, to Adalind. So why bring up Rosalee's wedding, otherwise known as The Beginning of the End of Juliette's relationship with Nick. "When she got married?"

 _Jesus, Adalind. Stop. Talking._ That voice in her head sounded remarkably like Nick's sensible one.

"No. A girl when I was known as Juliette went to school with and another she worked with."

"Is it weird to talk about yourself as another person?" Adalind asked her, heedless of her own Nick-inspired sage advice.

"I was another person," Eve said after a moment. "That other person is gone."

"Okay," Adalind replied and finally shut up for a moment. "Is that because you can't live with yourself and what you had done and it's just easier to bury all that down and pretend you're another person entirely now? It's kind of a cop out."

 _Fuck, Adalind._ That was definitely Nick's voice.

"I mean, I did all sorts of horrible shit and I've had to live with it and move on."

Eve slid cool eyes to Adalind. Adalind had to wonder, not for the first time, what Eve's thoughts were on the fact that despite everything Adalind had done, Nick was now with her. Voluntarily. Happily.

Actually, Eve claimed she had no thoughts on Nick or Adalind's relationship, but she wasn't sure that Juliette was buried as deep as Eve pretended.

"Were you responsible for Nick's mom? What almost happened to Monroe?" Eve asked her crisply.

 _Maybe. In a way._ She was somewhat (okay, pretty much) responsible for Juliette becoming a Hexenbiest.

"No, had some things to do with his aunt though. And Hank. Some other things." _Y_ _ou, for example._

"Yes, I'm aware of everything you've done," Eve stated, and though it was said matter-of-factly, Adalind thought she detected some (not undeserving) judgment.

"Right. Sorry," Adalind said and managed to clamp her mouth down before the next inappropriate comment left it. _Are you happy like that?_

No way she was going to ask that of the woman whose happiness, whatever there was then, or now, she'd stolen away on multiple occasions and then proceeded to make her own happy life with the man who had been at the center of it. Eve stared at her a moment longer before glancing at something over her shoulder.

"It's your turn to order," she said.

 _Thank God._

Halfway through the show Adalind came to some startling conclusions. Startling, because it was incredible she was capable of any critical thought, having tossed back a Bahama Mama and a Tequila Sunrise on top of the four other drinks she had consumed.

Frankly, it was startling that she was still upright, but the alcohol had loosened more than just her tongue, and she bounced and danced and jumped and whooped and screamed with Rosalee and all the rest of the women.

The first thought was that she would be wise to never enter into a drinking contest with Rosalee because she could drink them all under the table, Trubel included, who was definitely a bit buzzed now into her sixth drink. In fact, it might be her eighth. Adalind had had to wave off this last round, afraid she would pass out or throw up, or both, if she consumed one more fruity beverage.

The second was, good Lord, these women had no shame, and speaking as the former president of the Brazen and Unapologetic, that was saying something.

The third was Trubel was definitely having a good time, and it was amusing and almost endearing to see her enjoy herself so freely, and she caught Eve's eye as she looked down their way and was hit with the sudden clarity of maybe that was why Trubel had brought along Eve, or perhaps why Eve invited herself. So she _could_ relax a little and let her guard down and enjoy her birthday and a night out with her friends.

Eve almost smiled, and Adalind further realized she was showing no effects from any of the drinks and doubted anything as middling as alcohol affected her. Eve was also paying close attention to a group of girls ahead of them, who had also been consuming booze by the bucket and were getting a bit rowdy as a result.

So was Rosalee for that matter.

There seemed to be some perceived rivalry between their group and the other girls, over the attention from the strippers, who frequented their area more than the row ahead of them, and already one of the girls and Rosalee had exchanged faux-friendly insults.

Things further escalated when the strippers came on stage to perform their next number, this one a salute to the military and Adalind realized their flags weren't at half mast, so to speak, as they moved around. They moved to circulate through the audience again, one a handsome, virile, well-endowed young man who had obviously heard from his fellow strippers that their group tipped well, and that even included Eve, Adalind noted, who had stared at some of the goods they offered with a coy, seductive smile that made even Adalind break out into a cold sweat before offering a monetary reward.

Rosalee, who was currently vying for the post as next head of The B & U, readied a twenty on her (should be noted) cowl-neck sweater-covered breasts and smiled as he thrust his hips suggestively in time to the music and came over. She supposed Trubel had decided to take office as the VP as she waved a bill in the air and began to move and dance as he took the bait and came over. (And okay, alcohol did have some affect on Grimms, because Trubel was definitely a bit tipsy). She wriggled the bill suggestively and the dancer leaned in and nipped at Trubel's neck.

She heard the ladies in the row ahead of them hiss and scream, and caught Rosalee's shocked and impressed look at Trubel's forwardness. Adalind supposed that made her either secretary or treasurer, now, depending on where Eve fell in their group, and she started a little as she pondered even considering her part of their group.

God, she was too drunk for deep thoughts.

The stripper rolled and rocked his hips suggestively, pulling the band away, giving them another amazing eyeful, which one of the ladies in the row behind them took a picture of, and everyone stuffed some bills down in appreciation. He smiled and moved down the line, in front of Adalind, rolling his hips so erotically she automatically thought of Nick when he was making love to her, and she flushed scarlet, and hurriedly stuffed a bill down his g-string in the hopes he would move along.

He didn't.

She must have dropped him a twenty or something, because he stayed and gave her a private performance, emphasis on privates, and she felt so hot she thought her blood might be boiling. He finally moved away, realizing she was stiffening up with discomfort, and as soon as he did Adalind turned to Rosalee and snatched the frozen margarita she was holiding out of her hand and took a large gulp.

Rosalee and Trubel erupted in peals of laughter, almost falling over each other, and Adalind turned to them, face still flaming hot.

"Oh my god," she said, and the margarita, though cold, didn't really help.

"Oh my god is right," Rosalee managed to spit out, still doubled over.

Adalind thought about pouring the drink on her friend's bent head.

"Your face," Trubel said, and Adalind huffed indignantly but couldn't help smiling. Yes, she could well imagine. It had taken her by surprise. She hadn't had any one but Nick act so intimate and familiar with her in years, and though she had felt a thrill at the stripper's attention, she had felt acutely that it shouldn't be anyone _but_ Nick who should have the privilege with her.

"Oh my god," Adalind said again, fanning her face, and Trubel snickered as Rosalee gave Adalind a fond smile.

"Nick will be jealous when he hears of this," Rosalee commented teasingly. Adalind flashed her a warning look.

"He's not going to hear of this, and what do you think Monroe will do if he hears about what you've done," she threatened.

"Hopefully throw me over his shoulder and take me to bed and have his way with me. Reassert his claim over me," Rosalee replied.

"Too much information," Trubel sing-songed.

"Oh like that wasn't?" Adalind countered, referring to the sexy dance and eyeful they'd just enjoyed.

Actually after that, Adalind wouldn't be disappointed if Nick got angry and did the same. She sighed dreamily.

She loved a good and angry Nick.

"Oh my god, the marine is coming this way," Trubel said, and Adalind fanned herself again and hoped she could survive another encounter.

"Look at the tattoos. Oh my god," Rosalee breathed, and Adalind wrinkled her nose a little, but couldn't disagree despite the ink that it detracted in anyway in how built he was. From head to toe. Especially in the middle.

Eve eyed him particularly like he was a delicacy. He was broad shouldered, and the muscles along his back and his pecs, his arms, wow… okay, yeah, there were some things to appreciate. Really, there were some very fine specimens among the male forms here tonight. He was inked all along his arms and torso, back included, and Trubel looked like she would like to run her tongue along some of the designs.

"Tattoos, really?" Adalind asked them and their heads nodded, not breaking their attention away from him. Fine, she couldn't argue that it took away from the vision he made. And tattoos had certainly looked good on Meisner, she reflected.

"Oh my god, when I was younger I dated a guy who was inked up and down his chest and back, but he didn't look like that. That…that is so hot," Rosalee said and they all agreed.

"You never got one?" Trubel asked her.

"A tattoo? Who says I didn't?"

"Rosalee!"

"Oh my god, those thighs," one of the other patrons behind them breathed and they all looked to where she was pointing. One was as big around as Adalind was. He was tall, too, easily taller than Nick, maybe taller than Sean even. He was definitely bigger and more defined than Sean.

Nick had a slight build, but he was muscular and fit, an unavoidable and not unappreciated benefit of his physical strength, endurance, and toughness as a Grimm and a cop. Unlike Sean, he didn't spend hours working out perfecting it, which maybe made him all the more attractive in Adalind's eyes. He was deceptively deadly and she found that unassuming quality immensely sexy. And she'd take the warm fuzziness of his hairy chest over an ink blot any day.

The stripper's calf muscles were as big as Adalind's thighs and they bulged as he moved and flexed and pivoted, giving every lady he encountered a thrilling spectacle of his body in motion.

He gyrated over to Eve, and Adalind was treated to some of the hottest, most suggestive, exchange of looks she had ever witnessed and almost averted her eyes it felt so intrusive. Rosalee's eyes got big when they looked at Adalind and Adalind shook her head slightly. The marine moved down, and Rosalee fished another twenty out of her pocket.

Forget the ATM, she wondered if Nick and Hank were going to be working a bank robbery in their immediate future. Trubel waved a tenner, folded lengthwise between her fingers as he moved and rolled his hips, her eyes locked on a tattoo that weaved from his pectoral to his waistband. He saw where she was looking and pulled it away and they could all see where it ended, Trubel gasping in delight and everyone else enjoying the artistry, both man-made and god-given. Trubel glanced up at him, eyes bright, as she stuffed the money inside and that's when all hell broke loose.

In retrospect, given the four of them in the same room together, Adalind was surprised the frivolity had lasted that long.

He caught Trubel's eyes, and shot away from her as fast as possible, backing into the group of obnoxious girls in the row ahead of them and knocking some of them over in his haste to get away.

In the process of doing so, one spilled her drink all over her friend's dress, while the other crashed heavily and drunkenly into the chair in front of Rosalee, knocking into her, and Rosalee's hands flung out instinctively, grabbing onto the first thing she encountered, the sleeve of the boisterous woman who Eve had been watching closely, to break her fall as they both hit the floor in a heap.

Adalind heard the fabric rip as she somehow, despite the shitload of drinks she'd consumed all night, managed to keep her feet.

"Grimm," the marine breathed, and that answered Adalind's question immediately as to what had happened.

It took a long moment for the rest of the venue to realize what was happening. The marine was still panicking, bumping into people around him like they were bowling pins and Trubel was taking a moment too long to sober up, but the damage was done anyway.

Adalind bent to help her friend and came away with a jab to the forehead for her efforts, the loudmouth woman flailing her arms out wildly.

"Ow!" Adalind exclaimed, rubbing her head, and came away with a bloody hand.

"You bitch. My dress is ruined," the woman breathed at Rosalee, who was also still gathering her wits, until she saw Adalind bleeding and then instinct took over.

" _You bitch,_ " Rosalee countered, woging briefly, and made a fist and gave the woman a solid right hook to the eye. The woman went down, knocking into one of her friends who had just regained her shaky footing.

"Grimm!" the guy exclaimed pointing, and Adalind's eyes darted nervously, wondering if and knowing instinctively there were likely more Wesen among them. "Grimm!" he said and Eve must have realized the danger, too, as he promptly grabbed at his throat to try to stop choking, but at least he shut up. It was becoming pandemonium now, the confusion over what was going on, the women falling and fighting, and now thanks to the bumbling dancer there were more than just the loud-mouthed bitch and Rosalee going at it.

Eve's telekinetic hold on the stripper eased up once it was clear he wasn't going to say any more and he turned to run and trampled over some more women, who were obviously a little more clear-headed than he was and took advantage of his prone state for a moment to run their hands over him.

"I think it's time to go," Eve said.

"Good idea," Trubel breathed, but one of the women ahead of them threw a rather pathetic punch at her, and Trubel scoffed and soundly backhanded her across the face, as though she was slapping away a fly, where she fell on the floor, crashing into some empty chairs and flattening them.

That apparently did it, and the music abruptly shut off, the lights came on and it was every woman for herself, as the boisterous girl's group decided to take up the cause for their friend. Adalind, having had more than her fair share of throw downs, recognized the looks, and even though she was out of practice (and her hexenbiest powers), grabbed her chair and swung it as one of them came charging at her.

The woman went down instantly, Adalind dropped the chair and grabbed Rosalee's hand, and Trubel and Eve helped clear a path to the door.

"Yeah! Take that, _Bitch_!" Rosalee shouted in parting and Adalind tightened her hold on her as they met a crush of people fleeing for the exits. Somehow, despite her attempts to stay together they got separated, in large part because several of the women around them recognized Trubel as a Grimm and that complicated their egress a bit.

By the time she made it outside the police had arrived and were taking control of the situation, normally a welcome sight, not so much when your husband worked for the police.

Fortunately, he worked robbery/homicide as a plains-clothes detective, and not as a uniform, first responder on scene, working crowd control, so with any luck he was asleep in bed, blissfully unaware of his wife's role in a strip-show melee.

She was stumbling around, looking for Trubel, or Eve, and Rosalee when a uniform she didn't recognize saw her and held up his hand for her to stop.

"Miss? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" she said, and then realized her head was still bleeding. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"You're bleeding," he insisted, and she shook her head.

"I'm okay."

"Adalind!"

"Rosalee!" Adalind called, feeling relief that was short-lived when she saw her friend. "What happened to your lip?"

Rosalee touched a fingertip to it gently. "Took an elbow to the face," Rosalee said. "Have you seen Eve or Trubel?" and Adalind shook her head. The uniform, Rosalee and Adalind, got caught up in the tidal flow of women still exiting, and Rosalee and Adalind were pushed about like buoys on the waves before they were finally free.

"Nice move with the chair," Rosalee said to Adalind and Adalind shrugged.

"Hey!" Someone screamed.

"Hey guys," Trubel said breathlessly, coming to stand beside them.

"Where's Eve?"

"She's around."

"You! Officer! Officer!" a ragged woman screamed, pointing an accusing finger at Rosalee, Adalind and Trubel. The uniform who had stopped Adalind turned back to the sound.

"She hit me!" It was the woman who had gotten into it with Rosalee, and she looked furious. Her sleeve was hanging by just a few ragged seams and it looked like someone had tried to pull out her hair. She'd lost an earring, and a shoe, Adalind noted, and she was also sporting some redness and swelling around one of her eyes.

"She hit me! Arrest her!"

"Excuse me? You hit her," Rosalee countered loudly, indicating Adalind's bleeding head. "It was clearly self-defense," Rosalee added, turning to the uniform who looked annoyed by the exchange.

"She threw a chair at my friend," the woman insisted, now pointing her finger at Adalind. "She knocked half her teeth out!"

"You're lucky she didn't knock _all_ her teeth out, or do more," Rosalee snarked.

"Rosalee, not helping," Adalind murmured, though privately she agreed.

"Ladies I'm going to put you in the back of my car if you don't shut up and simmer down," the uniform said to all of them, and the boisterous bitch turned to him accusingly.

"You should be arresting them! I want to press charges. They assaulted me!" The cop frowned and put his hands on his hips and looked at Adalind, Rosalee and Trubel, who was sporting a cut near her eyebrow and a bruise on her chin, but otherwise looked unruffled. Eve had appeared sometime during the exchange and was eyeing him blankly and his frowned deepened when he looked at her but he turned his attention back to the woman who was now gesticulating wildly about her, getting more and more incensed.

"Lady," the cop said authoritatively. "If you don't calm the hell down I'm going to place _you_ under arrest," and Rosalee smirked and what little control the woman had been exercising vanished. She lunged for Rosalee, kicking out at her, and Adalind shoved her away defensively. She needn't have bothered, Rosalee had been apparently expecting it and connected soundly with another right cross. Two of the lady's friends leapt to her defense, and the cop sighed in aggravation and grabbed his cuffs.

Five minutes later, they were all handcuff and sitting in the back of the squad car, Trubel, Rosalee, Adalind and Eve, who had surprisingly allowed herself to be taken in with them. The other woman, and a couple of friends who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time with her were placed in another squad car, and the uniform who had placed them all under arrest-drunk and disorderly, attempted assault, assault-was shaking his head and rubbing his chin, where he'd taken a wild blow, and muttering as he wrote up the citation.

Adalind sighed and looked at her companions.

"Well, I guess it's not the first time I've been in handcuffs, sitting in the back of a squad car," she reflected. "It's not even the second time," she realized and shook her head slightly. The others all nodded and shrugged their agreement, and Adalind looked at them again and further realized with a snort that every one of them had also been arrested, at one time or another and began snickering at the absurdity of it. Rosalee looked at her questioningly and Adalind shook her head. She smiled, somehow understanding what was so amusing.

"It's been a while, though," Rosalee said. "I see they still all have that same bathroom kind of smell," and they all nodded again.

"Uh-oh," Trubel said, looking out the rear driver side window and Adalind turned to her, tensing.

"What?"

"Wu's here."

"Good, maybe he'll release us," Rosalee said.

That would be preferable to the alternative, Adalind thought, since the alternative involved being taken down to the station and placed in a holding cell. Again, not that she or any of her companions were new to that, but that scenario had a higher likelihood of Nick finding out about this.

They all peered to the side and watched out the window as Wu talked with the uniform. The cop pointed at the car a few times, and Wu turned in surprise, eyes meeting Trubel's and Rosalee's before he turned back to the cop.

A second later he marched over to the squad car, opened the back door and peered in. Everyone smiled at him serenely and Wu snorted and shook his head, shutting it again, and then went back to the uniform. He chattered some more to the uniform and after about ten minutes a decision must have been reached, because the uniform shook his head disgustedly and walked away.

"Ladies," Wu said after he walked back over to the car, leaning down to peer at them. "I'm going to have you taken down to central station, where you'll be thrown in the drunk tank. You'll be allowed to make one phone call each. I advise you to choose wisely," he said.

"Can't you just, you know, let us go with a warning?" Rosalee pleaded. Wu shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's too late for that."

An hour and a half later, they had been fingerprinted, booked, and placed in a holding cell together. Adalind had no idea where the woman and her party had gone to, obviously another precinct since she wasn't in the cell next to them. Maybe she had been released.

Adalind was sitting in the cell, leaning against the wall from her spot near the bars, reflecting on how she wished she hadn't been so hasty in changing her name on her license to her married one. The officer processing her had squinted at the name in surprise, and glanced at her suspiciously.

"Burkhardt?" Adalind had smiled beatifically. "You're not related to a Detective Burkhardt, are you?" he had asked dubiously.

"I don't think so," she said, affecting a confused, innocent expression. "It's a very common name," she had remarked, and the cop had eyed her disbelievingly. Trubel hadn't helped when she had choked down a laugh.

Adalind had just smiled wider and decided a hacking fit might be a better answer. She probably should have just told the officer the truth. If he looked into it, and she was sure he would, he would see that her maiden name had been Schade, that she had been arrested before, that the arresting officer had been the illustrious Detective Burkhardt of Central Precinct, and that a marriage license existed with hers and Nick's name on it. More fodder for the rumor mill at Nick's work about her and their relationship, and wouldn't he just thank her for that?

The atmosphere in the jail was more subdued now, with the heavy dread of waiting for the shit to hit the fan with Monroe and Nick, although Rosalee didn't seem to be overly concerned. Maybe it was just Adalind. Adalind's forehead had finally stopped bleeding, and the cut had been affixed with a butterfly Band-Aid. Rosalee dabbed at her lip nervously, but it too had stopped bleeding.

Trubel didn't seem to be aware of any of her cuts and bruises, and Eve didn't have a mark on her. Not surprising, really.

"This has been the best birthday ever," Trubel remarked in the silence and everyone looked at her. "Thanks guys," and she said it so seriously that Adalind snorted and Rosalee started smiling before she winced and dabbed at her lip again. Trubel _was_ being serious, and Adalind should have known that getting into a fight and then being tossed in jail would be a highlight of the night for Trubel. Actually, ten years ago she probably wouldn't have been all that bothered by it either. She shook her head, but she smiled.

"Glad you enjoyed it," Adalind remarked drily.

"Oh my god, ladies, what are we going to tell the guys? How are we going to explain all this?" Rosalee said, voicing the concern that had been on Adalind's mind since the uniform had slapped the cuffs on her. Wu had said something about seeing if he could get the charges against them dropped, but Adalind wasn't optimistic that even if he could that Nick wouldn't find out about it.

She could just see him now, grabbing a coffee tomorrow morning at the little coffee stand in the department, and one of the guys he worked with remarking casually, _"Say, Burkhardt, wasn't that your wife they hauled in for assault and drunk and disorderly?"_ Given her history, she doubted he would disbelieve him, but he'd probably offer a token dismissal and a shake of his head and then, when the other detective was out of sight, he'd hurry over to his desk and look up the arrest reports. Still, she could be on the other side of the continent by then, or at least safely ensconced in the law library at work, which had some of the best security in the whole building, protecting thousands and thousands of dollars of law books and other important documents, and unreachable by phone or messenger.

"I vote we don't," Adalind said.

"They're going to wonder where we are, especially if we don't come home."

"It might be safer," Adalind ventured and Eve eyed her shrewdly. She looked faintly amused, and Adalind could imagine she got a cheap thrill from knowing that Nick was going to be aggravated with her.

"Somebody's bound to tell them," Trubel pointed out.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Adalind muttered.

"I really don't have to explain anything to anybody," Trubel said. "That seemed less pathetic in my head than when I said it out loud," she remarked.

"Not to a husband, maybe, but you can bet Nick will want to know why you're here."

"Right. Time to get our story straight. So what are we going to tell them?"

"The truth," Adalind said firmly, because Nick could suss out a bogus story faster than you could say poor alibi, and she made it a point in their relationship to always show his faith in her was not misplaced.

"Maybe a slightly edited version," Trubel said, and Rosalee cocked her head in agreement.

"I don't have to explain anything," Eve said, and they all looked at her contemplatively.

She hadn't offered anything but the basics to the officers who had processed her, and Adalind wondered what name she had given them when they had booked her. Juliette Silverton? Eve-no-last-name-like-Madonna-or-Cher? Actually, even Cher and Madonna had last names. Or maybe she had mind controlled them. Although, if that were true, she hoped she would have done that _before_ the cops arrested them.

"I envy you," Rosalee said with a sigh and Adalind laid her head back against the cinderblock wall. Silence fell over them again, and Trubel stretched out on the cot and closed her eyes.

They heard a commotion about twenty minutes later, and Adalind stiffened, Rosalee straightened and Trubel opened her eyes.

Moments later Nick and Hank strolled into view and stopped in front of their cell. Hank looked like he was trying not to laugh and Nick had on his cop face.

"Ladies," Nick said, and then started slightly when he caught sight of Eve sitting at the back. _"Eve?"_ he said incredulously and Eve smirked.

"Oh, hey Nick," Rosalee said, as though she had just run into him at the market. Trubel smiled and Eve turned her head from her seated position on the other cot.

"Hey Hank, what are you guys doing here?" Trubel asked.

"Hey sweetie," Adalind said to Nick as he had yet to acknowledge her, and he gave her sharp, piercing look. He looked disheveled, and Adalind wondered if he had just gotten out of bed. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked back at Hank, as though they were trying to sync up a good cop/bad cop type interrogation scene.

"What am I doing here?" Nick repeated. "Well, that's very interesting. I get a phone call from the desk sergeant telling me that a woman who he believes is my wife, and the three other vagabonds with her, has been arrested and is sitting in the drunk tank if I want to come down and bail them out. You don't know how long I seriously debated on just going back to bed," he told them. "But I had to come down and see for myself. And lo and behold, it _is_ my wife."

"And you brought Hank with you?"

"Oh, I wasn't going to miss this. He called to see if I could come over and watch the kids."

"Who is watching the kids?" Adalind ventured and Nick's caustic gaze levelled on her again.

"Bud," he snapped. "Who I rousted out of bed and made him drive over."

"Oh."

"You could have called Josh," Trubel offered.

"I didn't know he was still in town. Or, you know, I could have just left you here!"

"Well, I mean, you were already awake at that point," Trubel muttered.

"Am I to understand you assaulted three other women?" Nick asked them.

"They started it."

"Actually the stripper started it," Trubel interjected.

"The stripper!" Nick cried, mouth tightening. "Yes, of course, the stripper. From the strip show you were apparently all at," he said, again looking at Eve incredulously. She stared back blankly, and Adalind thought she might just be messing with Nick. "Again, imagine my surprise reading the report that you were all part of a brawl at a strip show, when I was led to believe you'd be spending the evening drinking, and eating, and enjoying good company, I believe was what you told me," he said to Adalind.

"Which we did," she said, ever the attorney.

Hank snickered. "Sounds like there was drinking."

"The company was...nice, too," Trubel ventured, smoothing her face when Nick glared at her. "We haven't really eaten yet, but I think there's a twenty-four-hour diner down the block," she said looking at the others. Adalind didn't dare laugh, not with the expression on Nick's face, but it took everything she had not to react to it.

"See, so we didn't lie," Rosalee said.

"Mm-hmm," Nick said. "Yeah, I'm already married to a lawyer, believe me, I don't need any of you to equivocate."

"You want to tell me how forty-seven people came to be injured at this strip show," Hank said, a little more seriously.

"Oh. That was the stripper," Trubel said and the others nodded and murmured in agreement.

"Right. How exactly?" The ladies all looked each other.

"Really, probably most of those injuries happened as everyone was trying to leave," Rosalee said. "It got kind of crazy there, for a moment."

"You don't say," Nick said. "As opposed to the _not_ crazy when, and I quote, " _That skinny, St. John's Bay wearing bitch decked me, and that tiny blonde bimbo next to her broke my best friend's teeth when she swung a chair at her_ ," he ended, glowering at Adalind.

"It was self-defense," Adalind said hotly and Hank smothered a laugh.

"That's right, she hit Adalind first," Trubel said, and Nick looked at her and then eyed the cut on Adalind's forehead.

"Bimbo? And who is she calling a St. John's Bay wearing bitch?" Rosalee said, getting a bit worked up.

"At least she said you were skinny," Wu pointed out dryly, coming to stand with Hank and Nick, and Rosalee did look mollified by that.

"You hit her with a chair?" Nick asked Adalind incredulously.

"What? I may be small, but I still got it when it counts," she said, and he rolled his eyes, but not before she thought she saw the edges of his mouth twitch in an aborted smile.

"So how is this supposedly all the stripper's fault?" Hank asked, getting back to the point.

"Right, well, he was over by us, you know, doing... his thing, and when he looked up at me he saw I was a Grimm, and he freaked," Trubel said, and Nick sighed and rolled his eyes again.

"He knocked into the girls ahead of us, they fell over, and one of them, the really bitchy one," Rosalee said, "fell into me and I accidentally ripped her dress trying to keep my balance."

"Yeah, she wants compensation for that," Hank said.

"She can keep dreaming."

"Is that how you got the gash and the split lip?" Nick asked, pointing to their injuries.

"She hit me," Adalind said, "When I was trying to help Rosalee up. I don't know why it's cut."

"Her ring," Eve said. "She was wearing a ring and when she flung out her arm, the stone must have cut your forehead."

"Must have been at least four carats," Adalind remarked, wincing.

"What were you doing in all this?" Nick said coolly, turning his attention to Eve.

"Having a good time," Eve said blandly, and Adalind was sure now she was just messing with him. "Also trying to keep the Megali Glossa from inciting anymore pandemonium."

"How were you trying to do that?" Hank asked her. Eve smiled. "Never mind," he said.

"That's the Wesen who woged?" Adalind cut in interestedly.

"Yup," Rosalee replied, smacking her lips on the last letter.

"What's so special about a megali glossa?" Hank asked.

"They really are adept at showing a girl a good time," and she and Adalind snickered before sobering at everyone else's look.

"They have a really big tongue," Eve clarified and Wu grimaced and looked at the ceiling at the implication, and Trubel smirked.

"Anyway," Rosalee continued, "The stripper freaked out, then everyone started knocking into each other and freaking out, and in the dash to get out, I think that's when everyone else got hurt."

Hank shook his head.

"So you see, it totally wasn't our fault," Rosalee said, and the women all shook their heads for emphasis.

"Right," Hank said dryly.

"How much have you all had to drink tonight?" Nick asked. Everyone looked up at the ceiling and the floor, glancing at each other.

"Oh, a couple of drinks here and there," Adalind hedged, and Trubel and Rosalee nodded.

"You?" Nick snorted. "Two drinks?"

"Two fuzzy navels, two bloody Mary's, two Bahama mamas, two tequila sunrises, a couple of margaritas," Eve recited and Hank, Wu, and Nick stared at her in amazement.

"How are you all still standing," Wu cried in amazement. "I have two fuzzies and I'm having conversations with the walls."

"We know," Hank said pointedly.

Nick turned his head slowly back to Adalind, raising his eyebrow.

"I skipped one of those rounds," she said defensively, and he stared at her, probably debating on whether to acknowledge the comment.

"How much longer do we have to stay here. I really need to go pee," Trubel said, dancing slightly for emphasis. Hank pointed behind her at the commode.

"Seriously?"

"We can turn our backs, or leave if you prefer," he said.

"I'm ready to go home," Nick muttered in agreement.

"What good is being friends with a cop, or married to one, if you can't at least get some private time in the bathroom?" Trubel asked them and the guys rolled their eyes and huffed exasperatedly. "I'm about to wet my pants here."

Nick made a motion with another put upon look, and Wu stepped forward and unlocked the cell.

"You ladies are free to go," he said and everyone brightened and stood to file out.

"Did Monroe come with you guys, too?" Rosalee asked them and Nick shook his head.

"I don't think he had any idea you're here."

"Thank god," she breathed as she slipped past him. Adalind tried to slip out, too, but Nick swiftly blocked her.

"Not you," he said to Adalind and she smiled nervously. Rosalee, Trubel, and Eve paused in their escape.

"Nick," Rosalee began, but Nick cut her off.

"Hank will show you the way out," he told her, as though they didn't know their way around the station. Adalind smiled reassuringly at her friend, eyes darting to Nick's. He met her eyes coolly. He couldn't do anything here in the police station. He _wouldn't_ do anything here in the police station?

"Why does she have to stay?" Trubel asked.

"I ran out of bail money," Nick retorted. "I didn't realize there was going to be so many of you." He glared at the others in a silent message to get moving and they reluctantly left them alone. Eve, perhaps, not so reluctantly.

"Nick," Adalind started, looking at him with big, blue (and maybe glassy) eyes.

"Save it," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the cell door, still blocking her exit. "You hit somebody with a chair?" he repeated.

"I told you it was self-defense," she said, daring to trace a finger over the wrinkled sweater he'd pulled on in his haste to come to the station, pectoral muscles hard underneath. She didn't think he was mad so much as reluctantly amused. In any event, he didn't move out of her reach, or grab her hand away. Instead his eyes lingered over the cut on her head again.

"You could have gotten seriously hurt," he said, reaching out and brushing feather light fingers against it, and she shook her head.

"I'm fine. It really wasn't that bad. Trubel was there, and Rosalee, and even Eve would have stepped in if it got bad."

"I can't believe Eve went with you guys."

"Makes two of us," she said, "but it really wasn't that bad either. We were all on our best behavior for Trubel," she told him, realizing a moment too late that the fact she was standing here in jail kind of blew a hole in that claim.

"Obviously, because I would have expected more than forty-seven people to have been injured."

She grinned cheekily, and wrapped her arms around his neck when she saw lips twitch again.

"I'm still mad" he said when she kissed him. "I mean, I got up out of bed, had to scramble to find a baby sitter..."

"Uh-huh, I'll make it up to you," she promised, kissing him again.

"To get my _wife_ out of jail..."

Another lip-lock.

"I'm very angry. Disappointed. Disappointed, too."

"No, you're not," she argued, and he bit down another smile. "You're amused; you're just trying to pretend you're mad because you think you can use it to wrap me around your finger. Make me beg and plead for your forgiveness."

"Oh, you'll beg and plead all right," he said, and he smiled at her. "You're never going to live this down you know. _I'm_ never going to live this down," he said and she sighed.

"I know," she replied, sliding her hands down his arms. He was really quite well and compactly built. He may not have biceps the size of watermelons but he didn't need them. What he had was really quite fine. Nothing to be ashamed about. And he definitely knew how to use it.

"Will you stop feeling me up?" he said and she realized what she was doing. "Save it for home."

"Too bad. It looks like I have to spend the night here," she said, draping her body against him, and looking up at him from under long lashes. He cocked his head to the side, hands sliding around her back and waist, holding her tight against him, a look in his eyes that said he knew exactly what she was doing and she grinned.

"Wu got them to drop all the charges, you're free to go," he replied, shaking his head slightly. "Against my better judgment you've been released back into society."

"Thank you," she said, kissing him again.

"Thank Wu," he said. "I was going to let you all sweat it a little."

"No, you wouldn't have."

"It was very tempting," he said. "Actually, really you should probably thank Monroe on that. He spent the entire night texting or calling me every twenty minutes with some question or concern about the baby."

"It was his first time staying home alone with and taking care of her. That's a big deal. It's scary," she said, remembering how she felt being the sole person responsible for one tiny being and the job seemed insurmountable.

"Yes, and them both finally going to sleep was my only hope for a reprieve. If Rosalee hadn't come home he'd be freaking out and blowing up my phone again."

"You wouldn't have been worried at all, huh, if your wife didn't come home? Tired of me already?"

"I wouldn't say that," he said. "Certainly not those exact words."

"Thanks," she said and he smiled.

"Yes, I would have been worried," he said, "especially when I thought about who you were with and what you could be up to. Incredibly, having a smack down at a male entertainers show never even crossed my mind."

"You don't know me at all," she said disappointedly with another kiss and he released her.

"Whose idea was it to take Trubel to see strippers for her birthday?"

"Rosalee's," she said.

"Twisted your arm, did she?"

"I had already said I thought it would be a good idea to do something nice for Trubel, before I knew the specific details. Rookie mistake."

"Hm," Nick said. He guided her out of the jail and down the hall to the elevator, palm warm on her back and she steadied herself further against him, wrapping both hands around his bicep, fingers absently tracing the bulge there.

He flashed a polite smile and nodded at a uniform as he stepped off and Nick and Adalind stepped on. Nick rubbed at his eye tiredly and punched the button for their floor. They were alone in the elevator and she laid her chin against his arm and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry I'm so much trouble," she said and he nodded.

"I knew that going in," he said, and she nodded in return and looked at him, eyes sweeping over his lithe frame as her fingers absently traced over the muscle underneath them.

"You've got a very nice figure," she said and he looked down at her in amusement.

"Thank you," he said. "Is that why you keep feeling me up? I can flex for you when we're at home," he added and laughter burst from her mouth. He quirked an eyebrow in question, and she looked at his confused face, her eyes dancing in amusement.

"Do you still have your old uniform?" she asked him, grinning.

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"You can wear it while you're posing, maybe with the shirt open and the pants-" she reached for them teasingly and he grabbed her hands away, shooting her a warning look. "We can put something fun on the radio, too," she added, smile widening.

"Let me guess: one of the strippers was a police officer."

"And a marine, and a sailor, and a fireman, and a cowboy-"

"Who did you see? A Village People reunion show?" he interrupted, but she wasn't paying it any attention.

Her mind caught on an image of Nick, chiseled and glistening with sweat, bare chest visible in his unbuttoned uniform, looking smoking hot in the look she had described.

"I'm glad - oomph," he tried to continue but was caught in a surprised lip lock with Adalind who was overcome with the sensation to jump his bones then and there. She blamed the liquor.

It was always the liquor.

It served to constantly remind her she really should be enjoying Nick more often than she did.

"Adalind," Nick managed to say around her mouth when the elevator came to a stop. The door buzzed and then opened and Nick yanked himself away, mouth red and Adalind's lips abused. His hair was a mess too - well even more of a mess, since she didn't think he'd run anything but his fingers through it in his haste to get down to the station - and he was breathing a bit unevenly.

"Well, well," Rosalee's smug voice interrupted. "Please don't let us interrupt you. Continue," and Nick gave her a slightly chagrinned look, though Adalind thought he might be more annoyed by the interruption than anything.

Hank stood uncomfortably beside her.

"I'm good. Need a moment for air," Adalind said, trying to nonchalantly put everything back to rights. She wasn't too out of sorts, thankfully, Nick always slightly more conscientious of where they were at and what laws they might be violating. Rosalee smiled coyly and stepped on, Hank reluctantly following.

"I hate you," he said to Nick, shaking his head and Rosalee's smile widened.

"Me too," she told Adalind.

"You're just jealous," Adalind sniffed.

"You're right, I am. God what I wouldn't give to have a man grope me in an elevator. Or one man in particular." Nick flushed slightly as he and Hank looked at Rosalee uncomfortably.

"You didn't call Monroe to pick you up?" she asked her friend.

"I didn't want to wake him," Rosalee said. "Hank said he'd give me a ride."

"You mean you didn't want to confess where you'd been and what you'd been doing?"

"Nope. Not any earlier than I have to. I'm not sure if my confession will go as well as yours did," Rosalee said, looking pointedly at her and Nick and he ducked his head.

"Depends on how you say it," Adalind replied.

"Did you actually say anything or did you just fall on your charms?" Rosalee asked wryly.

"Hey, I use what works," she said, and jumped slightly when she felt Nick's hand grip her ass in a subtle warning to stop talking.

"Maybe I should try that," Rosalee said.

"Charming the pants off him?"

"No, bossing the pants off him," Rosalee returned, and Adalind laughed out loud as Hank rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

"Why me?" he muttered.

"Ladies, girls' night ended when you got arrested. Please adjust your topics of conversation accordingly," Nick said and they shook their heads, and Adalind smiled fondly up at him and kissed his cheek loudly, sliding her arms around him again, before popping another kiss against his profile.

"And behavior," Hank added.

"You could have stayed home and baby sat," Rosalee reminded Hank. "But you wanted to witness girls' night out in all its glory. Here it is."

"Now I just want to go home and drink."

"Did Trubel get a ride home?" Nick asked them, leaning against the back wall of the elevator.

"Yeah, Josh came and picked her and Eve up," Hank said.

"Hmm, so much for Trubel getting a little," Adalind remarked to Rosalee, and Nick pulled his head away from against the wall of the elevator, along with Hank, to look at her in surprise. "Take it from me, nothing kills the mood faster than Eve."

Nick subtly pinched her rear again in warning.

"Didn't look like it did too much damage tonight," Rosalee remarked, eyes laughing at her and Nick.

"Okay," Nick said, "Time to change the subject."

"Sure," Rosalee agreed. "So what are you guys going to do when you get home?" she asked not bothering to hide a smile, and Adalind snorted a laugh at her cheek.

"Drink myself stupid," Hank said, and Adalind covered her mouth with her hand.

"New. Subject," Nick said sternly, and fortunately the elevator arrived at the garage and Hank breathed a sigh of relief when the doors slid open.

"So who had the best moves, you think?" Rosalee asked Adalind. "The Bad boy? The Doctor? The Cop?" Adalind smiled, thinking of the only cop whose moves she wholly appreciated.

"I don't know."

"Who had the biggest…audience response," Rosalee amended when Nick and Hank looked at them. Hank hurried his pace a little and it must have been mutually and silently agreed upon to separate them, as Hank split away from Nick, and Nick grabbed a hold of Adalind's arm, and walked them along one side of the lane, to where Adalind and Rosalee had to shout to one another.

Which they did.

"Hmm, I don't know," Adalind shouted, stumbling a little as Nick tugged her along. He glanced back at her. "That's a tough one."

"There were so many good ones. I think the marine," Rosalee yelled. "The sailor was nice. He certainly got a response out of you!" she teased and Nick slowed and looked over at Rosalee when Adalind shook her head at him and flashed her eyes at her friend in warning.

"Oh my god, he had the biggest…thighs," Rosalee said, holding her hands apart to demonstrate, grinning and blessedly she reached Hank's car.

"Oh my god," Adalind muttered, face warming a little as Nick narrowed his eyes back at her. "I hope Monroe shuts you the hell up!" she shouted to her soon-to-be-former friend.

"Me too! I think you're right. I'm just not going to give him a choice."

"It's easier if you don't give them any time to think about," Adalind agreed, and caught Nick's look and smiled.

She watched Hank stuff Rosalee into his car and drive off as Nick unlocked and opened the passenger side door, clearing the seat for her. He turned and blocked her entry.

"What's this about a sailor?" Adalind shook her head dismissively. He gave her a politely disbelieving look, curiosity piqued.

"He made me think of you," Adalind said.

"Because of my decades spent in the Navy? In what way?" Nick asked, clearly wondering at the explanation. She flushed slightly, remembering the way the dancer's hips had moved and the flush of excitement her body had felt, reminding her of Nick when they were together. She certainly didn't want to tell Nick that.

"Nothing, really, I just wished I was home, alone with you." She leaned in and kissed him, hoping to put any doubts he may have to rest.

"Well, you're about to be," he said when they broke apart seconds later. "And after tonight, I intend to go to bed happy," he said, closing the car door after she got settled in. "So you better sober up, buttercup, because Monroe won't be the only one getting any tonight."


End file.
